Ask Kanye West to Denounce Racist Law in Alabama

Update [10/27]: It looks like Kanye just left Birmingham, but he can still make a public statement about what's happening here! For example, he could tweet a solidarity message as he goes on stage. Please sign the petition to help end the celebrity silence on Alabama.

As a long-time hip hop fan and student in Alabama, I am asking Kanye West to meet with civil rights organizers on the ground here in Birmingham while he is in town this month, preparing to launch his world tour with Jay-Z.

Alabama just passed a heinous immigration law (HB56) that makes children afraid to go to school, criminalizes aiding or helping undocumented immigrants, and even legalizes racial profiling. This law is an attack on the state's citizens, documented and undocumented -- white, black, brown, and otherwise. It has taken Alabama backward, to an era that civil rights leaders have fought hard to overcome. It is a dire situation that affects people of all colors, classes, and statuses, as our state is already being crippled economically by the exodus of the migrant population.

In the spirit of social justice and hip hop, please help us get the message to a world-renowned artist that we need help in this fight.Kanye West has spoken out publicly about issues of racial and economic justice before, and earlier this month he even showed up at Occupy Wall Street. Getting Kanye to speak out while he's in Birmingham would have a dramatic impact on letting folks around the country see what is wrong with extreme immigration policy like Alabama's.

Sign the petition asking Kanye to meet with Alabama civil rights leaders while he's in Birmingham this month-- and make a public statement about what is happening in Alabama.